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Rampage V Extreme Q-Code 78 and 68 weird issue with BIOS 3801

Sam90
Level 8
Hello guys

I have a problem with RVE that will drive me nuts.

These are my system specs :-

i7-5960X
Rampage V Extreme (BIOS 3801)
16 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000 Quad-Channel Memory
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti
Essence STX II Soundcard
Samsung 950 Pro
Windows 10 Pro
EVGA SuperNOVA G3 1000

The issue at hand :-
It happens at random once a week on average. The board cold boots very slowly and will stuck at q-code 78 or 68 for around 30-45 seconds then will proceed normally. If I try to hot boot it (by restarting PC) it will get stuck at 78 for 30 seconds, then 68 for around 2 minutes then get stuck at 70 indefinitely. The only solution to that case is to hard reset it and cold boot again, but it will take around 30-45 at 78, then 68 but will proceed normally to Windows.

What I have tried (and failed) :-
1- Changed the graphics card to a spare GTX 470 lying around.
2- Tried booting single-channel with all the 4 ram pieces.
3- Reinstalled Windows and drivers.
4- Removed the cables of all the peripherals (HDDs, USBs ... etc)
5- Cleared CMOS.
6- Reset BIOS to default
7- Re-flashed BIOS again using EZ tool and Flashblack.

Side Effects of the issue when it happens :-
1- BCLK drops by 0.33 from 99.94 to 99.61 or 125.00 to 124.68.
2- Time is usually off by 5 minutes (happens only sometimes).
3- Intel I218-V will have exclamation mark in device manager but it is fixable by disabling and re-enabling it again.
4- In the Event Viewer I have this warning "LMS cannot connect to Intel(R) MEI driver. ID is 2001
"

Temporary Solution (the ONLY valid solution I found) :-
Reflashing the borked BIOS again by copying from the other backup BIOS (or using the other BIOS altogether). The board will work normally and will take normal time to boot at q-codes 78 and 68, then proceed normally to Windows with no issues in the Ethernet Adapter and BCLK (99.94/ 125.00).
but once a week the issue will happen again and I have to copy the working BIOS to the other borked BIOS and the borked BIOS will be fixed only for the next week for this issue to happen again and the cycle continues ...
This issue happened with both BIOS chips 1 & 2, so I am assuming the BIOS is not the culprit but a hardware issue.

Thanks for the help in advance and sorry for the wall of text
Best Regards
9,586 Views
17 REPLIES 17

nick_the_greek_
Level 7
Have you tried flashing the bios to 3701 through the bios Flashblack method...

nick the greek 1 wrote:
Have you tried flashing the bios to 3701 through the bios Flashblack method...


I went back to 3701, will see if this issue persists.

Korth wrote:
I suspect your PSU is failing. Test the system with another PSU if possible.

You've basically already confirmed all your mobo power inputs and GPU power inputs are properly connected - but you should inspect them for loose, dirty, or damaged pins. You can backprobe with a DMM during boot to confirm voltages are not fluctuating under load.

Mobo CR2032 battery might need replacement if it's old. Complete battery failure would cause other issues, but intermittent/weak battery can cause all sorts of strange problems which are difficult to troubleshoot. Worth spending a buck to possibly correct this problem and to certainly rule it out, saves time either way.

It's possible your CPU needs to be remounted, but this would be the last thing I'd check.

You say this problem only occurs about once a week and cannot be reproduced on demand, so there's little immediate urgency ... but a PSU operating out of tolerance does accelerate electrical wear on everything downstream, so I advise confirming/denying if it's your failing hardware component somewhat promptly.


Thanks for the suggestions. I replaced the CMOS battery today and reverted back to BIOS 3701. If it happens again I will test with my spare PSU and remount my CPU.

Thanks for the help again guys 🙂

Korth
Level 14
I suspect your PSU is failing. Test the system with another PSU if possible.

You've basically already confirmed all your mobo power inputs and GPU power inputs are properly connected - but you should inspect them for loose, dirty, or damaged pins. You can backprobe with a DMM during boot to confirm voltages are not fluctuating under load.

Mobo CR2032 battery might need replacement if it's old. Complete battery failure would cause other issues, but intermittent/weak battery can cause all sorts of strange problems which are difficult to troubleshoot. Worth spending a buck to possibly correct this problem and to certainly rule it out, saves time either way.

It's possible your CPU needs to be remounted, but this would be the last thing I'd check.

You say this problem only occurs about once a week and cannot be reproduced on demand, so there's little immediate urgency ... but a PSU operating out of tolerance does accelerate electrical wear on everything downstream, so I advise confirming/denying if it's your failing hardware component somewhat promptly.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
2101 was my favourite BIOS on that board with a 5960X

Korth
Level 14
I'm still rocking BIOS2101 on my old R5E systems, lol.

Subsequent BIOS versions mostly affect compatibility with hardwares I don't have installed. The few which promise "improved performance" or "improved stability" are too vague, there's no benchmarks/comparisons, there's conflicting (or equally vague) reports from users. My performance seems fine so I won't fix what ain't broke.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]

I would check the power supply as suggested. But if that is not the cause, here are definitions of your codes that may offer some clues to the cause of the trouble:

Code 78 is for ACPI module initialization (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface),
Code 68 is for PCI host bridge initialization,
Code 70 is for Southbridge DXE initialization (Southbridge chip is X99, and DXE is the Driver Execution Environment phase of boot).

The Southbridge chip controls some of the PCI Express slots, so it might be meaningful that you get both codes 68 and 70 on a warm reboot.
Maybe codes 68 and 70 point to a corrupted chipset driver? On my R5E/X99 the Windows installed driver version 10.1.1.38 on all PCIE ports. You could try updating the drivers in Device Manager. Hopefully not a failing Southbridge chip.

The PCIE slots controlled by the Southbridge are the gray-black ones (PCIE 2.0 x4_1 and PCIE 2.0 x1_1), and they share bandwidth with the USB3_9 and USB3_10 ports under the Ethernet RJ45 jack on the back panel. So if you have any devices plugged into those PCIE slots or those USB jacks you might try unplugging them and see if your system boots normally. Problem could be a bad piece of hardware or external drive that the BIOS has trouble initializing, or bad drivers for those devices.

Good luck.

R5Eandme wrote:
I would check the power supply as suggested. But if that is not the cause, here are definitions of your codes that may offer some clues to the cause of the trouble:

Code 78 is for ACPI module initialization (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface),
Code 68 is for PCI host bridge initialization,
Code 70 is for Southbridge DXE initialization (Southbridge chip is X99, and DXE is the Driver Execution Environment phase of boot).

The Southbridge chip controls some of the PCI Express slots, so it might be meaningful that you get both codes 68 and 70 on a warm reboot.
Maybe codes 68 and 70 point to a corrupted chipset driver? On my R5E/X99 the Windows installed driver version 10.1.1.38 on all PCIE ports. You could try updating the drivers in Device Manager. Hopefully not a failing Southbridge chip.

The PCIE slots controlled by the Southbridge are the gray-black ones (PCIE 2.0 x4_1 and PCIE 2.0 x1_1), and they share bandwidth with the USB3_9 and USB3_10 ports under the Ethernet RJ45 jack on the back panel. So if you have any devices plugged into those PCIE slots or those USB jacks you might try unplugging them and see if your system boots normally. Problem could be a bad piece of hardware or external drive that the BIOS has trouble initializing, or bad drivers for those devices.

Good luck.


Hi

I tried disconnecting everything from USBs, HDDs and all PCI-E devices to no avail, as well as different drivers of Chipset and MEI. I just hope there is nothing wrong with the mobo.
But yesterday I bought a new CMOS battery and reverted back to 3701. Will see if the issue happens again, if it didn't happen for at least two weeks straight I will assume that it is fixed. If it happens again my next bus-stop will be the PSU.

Thanks for the help
I really liked the community here, they know their stuff, very articulate and professional. Thanks again.

Sam90 wrote:
Hi

I tried disconnecting everything from USBs, HDDs and all PCI-E devices to no avail, as well as different drivers of Chipset and MEI. I just hope there is nothing wrong with the mobo.
But yesterday I bought a new CMOS battery and reverted back to 3701. Will see if the issue happens again, if it didn't happen for at least two weeks straight I will assume that it is fixed. If it happens again my next bus-stop will be the PSU.

Thanks for the help

I really liked the community here, they know their stuff, very articulate and professional. Thanks again.


I too enjoy the community here and I've learned much. It is a really nice resource. One further thought occurred to me and that is to reset the power connectors to the video card, because you had an ACPI code plus codes for PCI bridge. If you buy a new power supply and that fixes the problem then great! If not, then you have a spare power supply which is always good to have around. Let us know what you find.

BTW, if you need to replace the motherboard, the R5E is still available from Newegg for $340

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD6H5ES3794&cm_re=SUS_ROG_RAMPAGE_V-_-13-132-505...

R5Eandme wrote:
I too enjoy the community here and I've learned much. It is a really nice resource. One further thought occurred to me and that is to reset the power connectors to the video card, because you had an ACPI code plus codes for PCI bridge. If you buy a new power supply and that fixes the problem then great! If not, then you have a spare power supply which is always good to have around. Let us know what you find.

BTW, if you need to replace the motherboard, the R5E is still available from Newegg for $340

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD6H5ES3794&cm_re=SUS_ROG_RAMPAGE_V-_-13-132-505...


Hi

Sadly the issue happened again. The board took too long at 78/68 during cold boot and with warm boot forget about it it won't boot at all and always will get stuck at 70. I disconnected everything again but that didn't solve the issue. Tried a different PSU and it still takes too long at 78/68 during cold boot. I switched to BIOS 2 and copied it to the corrupted BIOS 1 as a temporary solution again.
It looks like a dying motherboard to me than anything else :(.

Thank you.